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Celestial Globe Model Documents

This material has 4 associated documents. Select a document title to view a document's information.

Main Document

Celestial Globe Model 

written by Todd Timberlake

The Ejs Celestial Globe model simulates the Two Sphere Universe theory of the Ancient Greeks. This theory supposes the stars to be fixed on the surface of a Celestial Sphere, with the spherical Earth at the center of this sphere. The simulation shows the motion of Sun and stars in this model, as well as the horizon plane for an observer on the spherical Earth. Two views are shown: one from outside the Celestial Sphere, and the other from the point of view of an observer on Earth looking up. Most of the characteristics of the simulation can be adjusted, including the period of Sun's motion, the tilt of the ecliptic relative to the equator, the latitude of the observer, the time of day and the time of year.

Ejs Celestial Globe model was created using the Easy Java Simulations  (Ejs) modeling tool.  It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive.   Double clicking the ejs_astronomy_CelestialGlobe.jar file will run the program if  Java is installed.  Ejs is a part of the Open Source Physics Project and is designed to make it easier to access, modify, and generate computer models.  Additional Ejs models for astronomy are available.  They can be found by searching ComPADRE for  Open Source Physics, OSP, or Ejs.

Last Modified June 13, 2014

This file has previous versions.

Supplemental Documents

Celestial Globe Model for Teachers 

A customizable Celestial Globe Model that allows teachers to set the display parameters.  The customized simulation is automatically saved with associated curricular in a new jar file that can be redistributed.

Last Modified July 21, 2012

This file has previous versions.

Source Code Documents (2)

Celestial Globe Model Source Code 

The source code zip archive contains an XML representation of the Ejs Celestial Globe Model.   Unzip this archive in your Ejs workspace to compile and run this model using Ejs.

Published August 18, 2009
Last Modified June 13, 2014

This file has previous versions.

Celestial Globe Model for Teachers Source Code 

Source Code for the Celestial Globe Model for Teachers. The source code archive contains an XML representation of the EJS model. Unzip this archive in your EJS Workspace to compile and run this model using Ejs.

Last Modified July 21, 2012

This file has previous versions.